Shares of Broomfield-based Noodles & Company soar on first day of trading

By Alicia Wallace, Camera Business Writer

Posted:
06/28/2013 12:39:52 AM MDT

Dora Rodriguez, center, and Heather Nicoll, right, work to prepare food for customers on Friday, June 28, 2013, at Noodles and Company at the Twenty Ninth Street mall in Boulder. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera)

Executives of Broomfield-based Noodles & Company Inc. celebrate the company's debut on the Nasdaq exchange in New York on Friday, June 28, 2013. (Courtesy Nasdaq)

It turns out Wall Street was indeed hungry for some Noodles on Friday.

Broomfield-based Noodles & Company Inc. debuted on the public market by pricing its 5.37 million shares at $18 -- above already heightened projections -- and finished out its first day by doubling its stock price.

Shares of Noodles (Nasdaq: NDLS) soared 104 percent, or $18.75, to close at $36.75 on Friday, the day the Broomfield-based operator of fast-casual restaurants raised $96.4 million in an IPO.

The stock excelled -- rocketing as high as 118 percent at one point -- on a flat and lackluster days for the Nasdaq and Dow.

"It's obviously really exciting," Noodles CEO Kevin Reddy told the Camera a couple hours after he rang the Nasdaq opening bell. "We couldn't be more pleased to see just the reception that we had and the quality of the investors."

When Noodles filed its registration documents in May for a future IPO, the offering size was $75 million. Earlier this week, the company raised its price range to $15 to $17 per share from the previous range of $13 to $15 per share.